It's official, the Canberra Raiders were robbed.
More NRL whistle-blowers face the axe this morning after admissions from referees coach Russell Smith that two try-scoring calls against the Raiders on Saturday night were officially wrong.
After completing his video review of the match yesterday, Smith said Blake Ferguson's no-try in the 37th minute should have been awarded to Canberra, while Cooper Cronk's try for Melbourne in the seventh minute should have been disallowed.
The calls were potentially a 12-point turn-around against the Raiders, who lost 24-19 after Storm fullback Billy Slater scored the winning try in the dying minutes.
Raiders coach David Furner was still fuming yesterday, but he refused to distract his team's preparation from this Saturday's match against the Titans on the Gold Coast.
Asked if officials should be sacked over the blunders, Furner said: ''That's for [referees coaches] Stuart Raper and Bill Harrigan to work out, but I'd like to have something done because we can't get the two points back.
''Someone has to be accountable, I am.
''With that against us, I'm very proud of the way my players fought back to take the lead in the second half and we nearly had the opportunity to win the game. I can't change the result now, we've got to look at this week and turn our focus to winning against the Titans.''
Referee Jared Maxwell and touch judge Jason Walsh were yesterday stood down for their golden-point error which denied the Cronulla Sharks an opportunity to win against the Wests Tigers.
Smith said Harrigan and Raper would decide today whether any officials from the Canberra game would be reprimanded.
''We've got to assess that as a management,'' Smith said. ''Obviously that [the wrong calls] has an impact in a close game like that was. We've got to look at that in the cold light of day tomorrow before they [Harrigan and Raper] conclude the appointments and they'll make the decision as to whether they believe any further action needs to be taken.''
While the no-try ruled against Ferguson has received the most publicity, it is the try awarded to Cronk that could be subject to more scrutiny by the NRL referee bosses.
Cronk grubbered ahead and, following a deflection, reached around Canberra's Terry Campese to score.
The decision was referred to video referee Phil Cooley, who ruled a try.
However, Melbourne prop Bryan Norrie was clearly in front of Cronk at the time of the kick and continued to chase the ball, diving and almost scoring himself.
Smith said Norrie should have been ruled off-side because he had continued have an impact on play.
''I believe that should have been a no-try,'' Smith admitted. ''In my opinion Bryan Norrie is certainly within 10m of Terry Campese.
''You could even argue his visual impact on Campese … you would think Campese would have felt his presence. So in my opinion we've got to have deemed he was inside the 10m and he wasn't passive [in the play].''
While the mistake in the Cronk try was a blatant ruling error, Smith said the decision against Ferguson was a judgment call.
Ferguson looked to have given the Raiders a lead by crashing over in the corner, but the try was disallowed because of a contentious forward-pass call against halfback Josh McCrone.
Smith admitted he was concerned that control referee Brett Suttor had taken the advice of pocket-referee, Gavin Badger, instead of the touch judge who was in better position.
The touch judge ruled the pass was legitimate. ''I believe it should have been a try,'' Smith said.
''There's going to be some momentum in a pass of that distance when there's a guy running forward at speed like McCrone was.
''So my opinion is that's a fair pass.
''He [the touch judge] has got a better view of the hands and in his opinion he believes the ball came out of the hands backwards.''
Furner would only say that he was ''extremely disappointed''.
''Take the touch judges away if they can't make that call,'' he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/raiders-were-ripped-off-20120305-1uesd.html
